Jimmy “Handy Man” Jones

Most widely known for his 1960 R&B smash “Useful Guy,” Jimmy Jones sang inside a clean yet soulful falsetto modeled on famous brands Clyde McPhatter and Sam Cooke. Given birth to in Birmingham, AL, Jones relocated to NY with his family members and started his entertainment profession like a faucet dancer. In 1954, he became a member of his 1st doo wop group, the Berliners, who quickly transformed their name towards the Sparks of Tempo. Jones documented a few edges with them in 1955, after that left to create his very own group, the Savoys. They documented for Savoy in 1956, after that jumped to Rama and transformed their name towards the Pretenders (following the Platters tune). The Pretenders cut edges for several brands over another few years, several beneath the name the Jones Guys, before disbanding in 1959. Sick and tired of portion as an organization head, Jones embarked on the solo career using the MGM-owned Cub label afterwards that season. Teamed with article writer/manufacturer Otis Blackwell, Jones documented a tune he’d written back his Sparks of Tempo days known as “Helpful Guy.” By early 1960, “Helpful Man” acquired rocketed in to the Best Five on both pop and R&B graphs. Jones implemented “Handy Guy” with another TOP hit, “Great Timin’,” afterwards that season. That became the full level of his main industrial achievement, although he held recording through a lot of the ’60s. He continued to be with Cub until 1962, scraping the low reaches from the graphs with “That’s WHILE I Cried” and “I Told You So.” He documented for Ro-Jac and Vee Jay over another 2 yrs, and his function gradually had taken on a fresh York-style uptown spirit taste. From 1965-1967, he trim edges for Roulette, Parkway, and Bell, non-e which restored his industrial position despite some great performances. “Helpful Man,” nevertheless, continued to be an enduring preferred, as Del Shannon and Wayne Taylor each discovered significant chart achievement with their personal variations. In 2002, because of Jones’ continued recognition on Britain’s North spirit circuit, Castle/Sanctuary released a double-disc anthology entitled Great Timin’: The Anthology.